(Modern Jazz, Contemporary, Big Band) Orchestre National de Jazz (art. direction: Daniel Yvinec, arragments by Gil Goldstein) - Piazzolla! - 2012, WEB, FLAC (tracks), lossless

As an artist of confluence, Piazzolla symbolizes many values dear to the artistic approach undertaken by Daniel Yvinec with his ONJ since 2009; and a personal exploration of the Argentinean's work constitutes an ideal playground for an orchestra accustomed to the in-depth examination of sound, timbre and playing both collective and individual, while defending a vision of open jazz far from all parochial or stylistic preoccupations.
In conceiving this repertoire, Daniel Yvinec chose to work closely with the brilliant American musician-arranger Gil Goldstein – a partner of Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon or Michael Brecker, amongst others. Their work on the arrangements focussed as much on the melodies and rhythms developed throughout the compositions of the Argentinean maestro as on his own bandoneon playing – all of them essential components which provide the latter's music such special savour.
To paint this subjective portrait – a shimmering, breathing, free portrait – a genuine collaboration was necessary: Daniel Yvinec and Gil Goldstein worked together in New York, elaborating on different scenarios for each of the titles chosen. They imagined, for example, different encounters taking place between these compositions inside a single room, meetings in a dizzying game of mirrors; and they also evoked the presence of other artists who influenced him… Hence the ghosts of Carlos Gardel, Alberto Ginastera, Roberto Di Filippo or Gil Evans mingling with Piazzolla's own universe.
There remained to find a way, without recourse to the actual instrument, of personifying the bandoneon of Piazzolla in order to make his sensual, tumultuous phrasing be heard… And you can bet that the omnipresent "virtual" bandoneon here, divided between the various members of the orchestra, won't easily escape the listener's ear. You can even "see" the ONJ transform itself into a meta-bandoneon in this re-reading, as if they were a chamber ensemble, of Mi Refugio, a piece originally written to be performed by a soloist.
There are other tasty things to be heard in the course of this new programme, including some of the composer's more emblematic pieces such as Libertango, Oblivion, Vuelvo al Sur, Tres Minutos con la Realidad..., all of them familiar landmarks authorizing further exploration, but in different lands.
With Piazzolla!, the ONJ celebrates the music of the Argentinean maestro in all its diversity, delivering an extraordinary new reading which surprises us by its audacity, in the image of an orchestra which has never wavered in its desire to give the public the opportunity to undertake new journeys.

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France's Orchestre National de Jazz, under composer/director Daniel Yvinec, subscribes to no state-orchestra orthodoxy of recycling the tried and trusted. In recent years the band have explored the idiosyncrasies of songwriter Robert Wyatt and the jazz, classical and fusion splicings of US bandleader John Hollenbeck. Now it's the turn of the late Ástor Piazzolla, whose dark love songs and glowering tangos have been arranged by revered composer-pianist Gil Goldstein. Typically for this band, the sound of an Argentinian bandoneón doesn't appear until halfway in (and then it's a sample from the late tango star Roberto di Filippo), and, though an old vocal recording by 1930s tango superstar Carlos Gardel opens the show, it's succeeded by orchestrations worthy of the Birth of the Cool band, the Pat Metheny Group or even Django Bates. The ensemble writing is packed with fascinating, fast-changing detail – high trumpets and purring trombones entwining with woodwind lines, Morricone-meets-free-improv impressionism on Libertango, and an 11-minute, slow-dancing medley of Soledad and Vuelvo Al Sur that eventually begins to sound like Gil Evans' Las Vegas Tango. It's almost excessively busy and eventful, but an interpretation of real vision. (John Fordham, Guardian)